


Soulmate 101

by KrakenIsios



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, College, M/M, Malec, Misunderstanding, Professor Magnus Bane, Soulmates, all mortal, communication or refusal to engage in it, good student alec lightwood, language warning, no powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 10:43:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20172940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrakenIsios/pseuds/KrakenIsios
Summary: Every person has the first words their soulmate will say to them on their body somewhere in a light copy of their soulmate's handwriting. When their soulmate says the words to them for the first time the mark turns black in confirmation. Alec is a student in his final semester looking to fulfill the remaining required classes to graduate. What happens when he hears his words come out of his professor's mouth?Chapter 1 follows Alec as he debates how to approach the sticky situation with his college professor. Chapter 2 fills in a few small gaps from Magnus' point of view.Not rated for language as I'm not 100% sure where that fits so I want to play it safe but  there's no mature content.





	1. Chapter 1

*******Alec*******

Alec had had an awkward half hour break between his last class and his last class of the day. Luckily it was just an entry level history elective. He had gotten permission to overload on credits the past few terms so he could do dual degrees instead of just double majoring so an easier class was a relief. Unfortunately, he had put off fulfilling his final core class and had opted into the only class that would tick the box that would also fit in with the rest of his major classes.

Since he had an awkward amount of time he had decided to just go to the classroom early and hope it was empty so he could organize all his new course documentation and put due dates into his planner. Luckily, he found the lecture hall open and welcoming so he was able to snag a seat in the front row. Nobody would ever accuse him of being an eager student, mostly because they didn’t need to.

He proudly owned his studious status and was pretty sure he was in the running for valedictorian as long as none of his grades dropped. It was what his parents expected. It was what the companies he had applied to expected, not that he really needed to apply but his parents had hinted-slash-lectured that having other job offers would make it more appropriate when he came into their company. Nobody could really complain about him being their child and getting preferential treatment if he could prove he was an asset anywhere, or so he had been told multiple times.

Fifteen minutes before class was set to start no other students had joined him but quite possibly the most attractive man he had ever seen entered the room and started at seeing him already in place. The man was Asian and almost as tall as he was but a good handful of years older. He had black hair artfully styled with a few gold pieces towards the front. The gold matched his makeup as light gold was dusted around his eyes on top of the kohl eyeliner and on his cheeks. Continuing the gold theme, the man wore a navy vest over a white shirt stitched with gold patterns. Alec had trouble moving his eyes off of the man’s biceps where the shirt sleeves were doing overtime, stretching over his arms and shoulders. Luckily the man walking brought attention to the darker navy pants tailored almost as tightly as the shirt giving Alec an even less appropriate place to stare.

The man took notice of him, blinked a few times in the most adorable way, and then proceeded to glance between Alec and the phone in his hands for a few more moments.

“For a second I thought I had the time wrong, you’re so early,” the other man said and smiled. “Always good to see an eager student though.”

The smile the other man gave him would normally have made Alec a bit hot and bothered, he was technically out but had never had time to really do anything with that so he had no built-up tolerance for attractive, sexy men smiling so warmly at him. But he just felt bothered because, fuck.

And not fuck, what a hot man, but fuck, those where his  **words** . And that was also, based on the fact that the man put his belongings down at the desk next to the lectern, the  **professor** .

Alec didn’t stop to think. He threw his items into his bag and strode out of the room, refusing to look at his professor as he did so. There was a bathroom right around the corner in the building so he made a beeline for it and locked himself in a stall before he let out the breathe he didn’t realize he was holding.

Sure, there was a chance that those were his words but that they didn’t come out of the right mouth. No string of words is truly unique. And maybe the tingling he felt low on his stomach was psychosomatic. But he couldn’t be a coward. He needed to know and he needed to know right now, before the class started and before he lost his grip on his mind that already wanted to compile a list of problems and concerns.

He dropped his bag onto the hook on the stall door and then threw his coat over the top. And then he paused and allowed himself to close his eyes and focus on calming the shaking in his fingers as they hovered at the hem of his t-shirt. Okay, no more waiting.

The once barely perceptible, tan scrawl was now inked heavy black. Fuck.

**_____**

  
  


Okay, so he had missed his chance to blame his first words on not knowing any better and now he knew better. Because that man is definitely without a doubt totally his one and only soulmate divined by mystical words tattooed on his lower left abdomen. And that man was also, unfortunately, his professor.

When his professor started roll call he sat there, overthinking how to respond. Should he respond? Could he look at another student and will the universe to believe that he was talking to them instead? And if he did say something, and he kinda needed to because you were only allowed to miss two classes or you failed which was absolutely not happening, what should it be?

Present? Sounded too stuffy, too boring. Who wanted a boring soulmate?

Here? Hi? Which was worse? Both. Both were worse. The most mundane, forgettable words could not be what his soulmate would have in a stark black copy of his handwriting on his body for the rest of his life. And how would he even know who had said it? It was roll call! Everyone was saying those things. He could not doom his soulmate to not being sure that it was his ‘hi’ that graced his body. How much did a handwriting analysis expert charge and could they even work with such a small sample size as two stupid letters?

Alec? As in, I go by Alec for short? He’d never been a fan of lovers getting each others’ names tattooed on their bodies and if his was on his professor’s he would feel like he needed to level that field and tattoos seemed like they hurt a lot.

Please marry me and adopt kids with me and maybe a cat or two because I love cats but was never allowed to have one growing up because they would ruin my mom’s furniture or whatever you want to do because you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen? A bit too on the nose probably.

It didn’t even matter if he wasn’t the man’s soulmate, there were cases of non-mutual soulmates and it would be his luck if that was the case here. He absolutely refused to burden his soulmate with the moral quandary of being his student’s soulmate. He didn’t know how the university would look at it, soulmates aren't easy to write rules around in many cases, but it would at best be incredibly awkward.

It was almost his turn and his mind had abandoned him. He wished he could come up with the word ‘hi’ but his brain just would not. His throat went dry. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He took a large gulp of water to alleviate the situation only to choke on it when his name was called.  _ Alexander Lightwood. _

Which was enough for his soulmate to identify him as the man in the small picture on his class list and took his weird noises as he tried to breath past the bubble of air that had gotten caught under the water and was causing him to cough inelegantly as acknowledgement and moved on. So, he would just got with not talking in this class.

But also, he couldn’t transfer classes. He needed the core credits to graduate and literally no other class fit into his schedule that would work and let him take the other classes he needed. He’d checked while Professor Bane went over the syllabus at the front of the room. This was all his fault for putting it off to the last semester.

Glancing over the syllabus he hadn’t caught a lucky break there either. Participation was part of their final grade, an entire letter. Just...perfect. 

Okay, so if he didn’t participate in class once and aced every assignment the most he could get is a B+. Which, if he did amazing in the rest of his classes he could still retain a high GPA and that B+ could be watered down by the fact that he had many, many more credits worth of As and A+s. It would still be enough to guarantee cum laude. Probably, magna cum laude. If he was very lucky, summa? If a few someones had major breakdowns or died or something helpful…well he wouldn’t be that lucky. 

He’d just have to deal with it. And deal with his parents. It was a competitive school. Maybe they’d be understanding?

**_____**

  
  


Magnus was a really enjoyable lecturer. He had an obvious passion for history and an amazing presence talking in front of others. Every single class was a new adventure and a new outfit and a new look of disappointment flittering across his professor’s face as the floor was opened for questions or thoughts, a blatant opening for students to gain the little check mark next to their names to show that they participated, and he didn’t offer anything.

He was referring to him as Magnus in his mind because if he wasn’t going to talk to the man then what did it matter what he called him? And if, after this whole painful semester was over he managed to make something actually happen, which was unlikely because he was pretty sure Magnus had the lowest opinion of him and he wasn’t good enough with words to smooth that over even if he said the man’s soulmate words, well, it would be easier if he didn’t have to unlearn calling him professor. Even if it played a part in a fantasy or two.

His quizzes had been perfect. His midterm had been flawless. His papers didn’t have a hint of red on them. So at least that was going well.

After the midterm Magnus sent out reminder emails. Or, he assumed emails plural because the one he got was just to him but he wasn’t necessarily paranoid enough to just assume he was being singled out.

_ Mr. Lightwood, _

_ Just a friendly reminder that participation counts for a full letter of your final grade no matter how competent your written work is. Upon reviewing grades at midterm it came to my attention that this is an area of improvement for you in my course. If you have questions or need assistance at any time, please come talk to me before or after class or at my office hours. _

_ \- MB _

Alec wanted nothing more than to write back and explain the whole predicament. Wanted to list out every single time he wanted to speak up in class and ask every single question he had about the lectures and reading. But he didn’t because there had been rare cases of soulmate marks activating after reading something written by the other person because the words carried such heavy emotion or intention or essence or something. And Alec would not risk that. It was only seven more weeks and finals.

**_____**

  
  


It was finally over. And no matter how much he loved his siblings he didn’t want to see them at the moment. They were blocking his path to get to Magnus and he absolutely had to get to Magnus. He wouldn’t wait one more stupid second now that it was official and he had the diplomas in hand.

Right after they had been dismissed following a long ceremony full of pomp all three of his siblings had glomed onto him, wanting to give him hugs and take pictures. He didn’t look for his parents, his mother had texted him the day before to let him know that they had to go out of town for a last minute meeting but that they’re sure he’d be fine since the salutatorian didn’t even give a speech.

Normally he would horde his family’s hugs but right now he brushed them off, telling them to wait for a minute because he had to see someone first. He had caught a glimpse of Magnus on the other side of the lawn, walking away back towards the buildings where his office was and that had become the only important thing in his mind. With how both Jace and Izzy had acted when they had met their soulmates he was sure they’d understand once he finally explained it to them.

He took off, hurrying to catch Magnus. Alec called his name but he wasn’t heard over the din of the happy families around them which was good because that would also have been a terrible first word. Anxiety overtaking him he picked up the pace into an actual run, his long legs catching him up to the unsuspecting professor quickly.

Of course, while normally competently graceful for someone with his height and long limbs, when he went to reach for Magnus’ arm to get his attention he overshot, tripping on a barely raised edge of a paver, and ran into him a bit causing the other man to yelp and turn around to look at him. Alec’s heart hurt as he saw the look of surprise melt into one of distance and maybe contempt but well hidden if so. 

This was what he was here to fix though. And when they had children and they asked for their love story the two of them would look back on this and laugh and everything would be fine. Hopefully. If he didn’t mess this up, again.

“Ah, Alexander,” Magnus said in more of a dismissive tone than one of greeting. 

He had never corrected him about calling him Alec instead of Alexander. In the part of his mind dedicated to fantasies Alec had even managed to make it  **their** thing. A name only Mangus was allowed to call him and how he’d do it...No focus. First words. Soulmate. Mangus is talking.

“Come to say goodbye to your favorite professor?” Magnus’ tone was heavily sarcastic.

He needed to say words, dammit! But he had just run and was nervous as hell and so he needed to catch his breath and collect his thoughts and what he ended up getting out was, “Sorry, hi, am I your soulmate because you’re mine.” Actually not the worst first words. Nowhere near as suave and perfect as any of the options he’d written down and rehearsed but at least he had gotten past ‘hi’.

“Dude, that pickup line needs some serious work shipping,” came a voice from behind him. Jace, because of course his siblings didn’t actually stay when he told them to.

And to make matters worse Izzy was also there with her helpful contribution of, “Oooooooo, hot for teacher, Alec? Nice.”

For his part, all Magnus was doing was gaping at him. Which wasn’t helpful at all. If Alec was doomed to a life of unrequited love he wanted to know sooner rather than later so he could go home and wallow. If he didn’t confirm or deny anything then they were just standing there, staring at each other, while good wallowing daylight was being wasted.

“I guess I should, um, thank you for not making this some weird conflict of interest,” Magnus said slowly as understanding filled his face. “I don’t have tenure yet and, yeah.”

“Wait, is that a yes?” Izzy screeched.

“The three of you, go home, now. I’ll catch up with you once I’m done here,” he commanded, turning to his siblings. Amazingly, the agreed.

“Yes.”

“W-what?” Alec stuttered, turning back to his soulmate who was wearing warm metallics that made him look positively godly under the sun.

“Yes,” Magnus repeated. “Yes, I do believe you are my soulmate. I won’t know for sure until I check and I’m not going to do that here, in public, but give me your number and I’ll let you know as soon as I check.”

Alec couldn't’ move, couldn’t say anything, he was so happy. So he settled for smiling.

“Scratch that. No time like the present. Wait here while I find a bathroom. Or a dark corner. Just. Don’t move.”

He watched as Magnus walked briskly into one of the buildings. Waited patiently outside, not moving. Waiting was his new forte. He had waited through the semester from hell. And the wait was worth it when Magnus emerged a few minutes later, a shy smile spreading across his face as he walked back towards Alec.

“Let’s try this again, shall we? My name is Magnus Bane. I’m a professor of history and I’ve just found my soulmate.”

“Alexander Lightwood, no longer a student. Do you want to get dinner?”


	2. Chapter 2

*******Magnus*******

_ What the hell was that? _ Magnus thought back on what he had said and was absolutely positive he said something light and normal and not ‘free pizza in the quad but only for the next three minutes’ and especially not ‘I’m a freewheeling bisexual who plans to do everything in my power to make you hate me’. And now the student had re-entered the lecture hall and instead of explaining with a laugh or saying hi to the professor for the class he planned to take for the next 14 weeks he walked to the seat in the very back corner of the room, as far away from him as the space would allow, and slouched down focusing on his phone.

So he had to assume it was him. Wonderful. There was always one or two every year. One student who didn’t like him, who had probably gotten in on daddy’s name and daddy’s money and who had adopted daddy’s old school ‘values’. The kid was probably already looking for another class. Shame. Not that it mattered to Magnus. He had learned to numb himself to any negativity towards his mannerisms and appearance years ago. And it didn’t matter that the student was a rumpled Adonis because he was a student and Magnus had built a wall in his mind for just these cases.

As the clock hit the quarter hour and he had roughly the right number of people in seats he decided to start class so he took out the roster and read off the names, asking for feedback if a student wanted to go by something else. When he got to the name he was pretty sure went with the student who couldn’t even pretend to respect his professor, he was met with a coughing fit and a glare.

Wonderful. That was a first. Hopefully Mr. Lightwood would try not to die in his class on the first day.  _ Neanderthal _ .

**_____**

  
  


He was baffled, absolutely baffled. While grading midterms with his friends he couldn’t hold in his confusion anymore.

“Have either of you ever had Alexander Lightwood in your class?”

“Alec?” Raphael, his friend who taught in the business school asked. “Yeah, sure. I was actually his adviser for a term while his regular adviser was out on a short sabbatical.”

“Ah, yes. Tall, business and econ double major, right?” said Ragnor, his other friend who taught literature with a focus on poetry. “I had him in one of my classes his sophomore year. Wonderful student. Rarely see one who isn’t majoring in the field come to office hours just to talk about a theme in a poem that wasn’t even required reading.”

“Business and econ double degree, with minors in finance and accounting. He’s pulling that off somehow.”

“Oh, impressive.”

“Yeah, the chair’s more than a bit disappointed that he is planning to go to work for his family’s company after graduation instead of pursuing further education.”

“So you both think highly of him?” Magnus broke in more than a bit lost.

“Magnus, come on. I know he’s probably your type but he’s your student!”

“I’ll have you know, Raphael, I haven’t spoken a word to him so whatever you’re imagining is entirely false. I am the consummate professional. I could never do anything with a student, especially one as entirely mundane as Alexander.”

“Outside of class,” Raphael followed with.

“What?”

“Come on, man,” Ragnor said with a teasing smirk. “Surely you’ve talked with him enough in class that you don’t need to chat with him outside of class to get a feel for him as a person and I promise you, he’s like that about everything. A voracious learner and almost exhaustively hungry to figure out how to apply even the smallest new, useful thing he’s managed to tweak out. Even I have to draw the line after an hour of discussing how to use meter to make political speeches more memorable.”

“He’s...never done that with me.”

“What?!” both men exclaimed. Ragnor looked affronted, Raphael skeptical.

“How bad of a teacher are you?” Raphael.

“It has to be a different student.” Ragnor.

“Tall, like over six foot?” They both nodded.

“Hazel eyes and black-brown hair that’s never seen a hairbrush?” Nodding.

“Dresses like he bought a twelve pack of dark neutral t-shirts?” More nodding.

“Senior?” The nodding continued.

“Sits in the back of the class and plays on his laptop the whole time?” That’s where the nodding stopped.

“No, absolutely not. What? What did you do?” Raphael finally managed after gaping for a long moment.

“Nothing! I walked in, greeted him, and he’s acted like he can’t stand the sight of me since. Maybe it’s the whole bisexual thing? That’s listed in the reviews on RateMyProfessor even though it’s not relevant to my actual teaching. Or maybe he just doesn’t think men should wear makeup? Or he’s racist?”

“I’m Hispanic.”

“Very specifically racist?”

“He’s also gay, I’m pretty sure,” supplied Ragnor. “I mean, he never said as much but he did write a very compelling essay on how the themes of suppression of identity and coming out in one of the poems resonated with his personal experience so I’m fairly confident.”

“Maybe he just...hates history,” Magnus weakly offered before turning back to the midterms he was grading. He didn’t believe that one bit thought because he had just finished grading Alexander’s and it was perfect, flawless, and definitely not the work of someone who didn’t pay attention to or care about the class. If he hadn’t personally proctored it he would have assumed plagiarism.

He had kind of been assuming that for the papers Alexander had turned in at the start of the term but after giving some in class quizzes and finding the same cadence in the way the sentences were formulated and the same intelligent analysis across both he had begrudgingly accepted that maybe it wasn’t the subject matter.

So that really only left him. But if it wasn’t that he was Asian, or bisexual, or a bit showy, and if Alexander could handle the drama queen that was Ragnor then really Magnus shouldn’t have been an issue, then what exactly did the student dislike about him so much that he changed his entire approach to learning?

That night he shot off a quick email, not just to Alexander, to all the students, with an update for each of them based on their progress at the halfway point and areas they could focus more on. Maybe Alexander had forgotten participation mattered and he thought history was facts based so he didn’t feel compelled to discourse? Maybe there was some misunderstanding that Magnus could clear up?

And he wasn’t jealous of his friends getting to see a vibrant, enjoyable side of the objectively attractive, younger man. One he only got to see through homework. Not at all. 

**_____**

  
  


After waiting and hoping and a very odd semester he was here, sitting across from his soulmate. And he was finally able to ogle him without feeling like he was indulging in some weird, problematic power dynamic. He couldn’t wait to tell his friends about his soulmate who had sacrificed his perfect academic record out of thoughtfulness. It was adorably romantic. They both knew how seriously Alexander had taken his grades. And,  _ oh no. _

“Alexander?” he asked and the other man met his eyes, hazel irises open and happy unlike he’d ever seen them. “How close, exactly, were you to valedictorian?”

He never got the answer but he did find out what a free, full laugh from his soulmate sounded like for the first time. So instead of dwelling on that one, small fact of the past the history professor decided to focus on the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda feel like Raphael has to have figured it out but decided he didn't care to help his stupid friend out.


End file.
